Wauconda outfitting trucks to use less salt, more brine

Wauconda will be using less rock salt and more salt brine on its roads this winter.

Village officials said Wednesday high road salt prices prompted them to consider the liquid alternative that is increasingly being used by a number of townships, municipalities and counties, including Lake and McHenry and neighboring Lake Zurich and Island Lake.

Wauconda has been using salt brine since 2006 when five village snow plows were retrofitted with a computerized calibration system to apply the liquid.

The village board's committee of the whole Tuesday night approved retrofitting five more trucks with the equipment, which applies salt brine on top of the road salt, extending the life of what little salt the village has been able to secure this year amid limited supplies.

"We had a plan back in 2006, which became cost prohibitive because of our budget crisis," said Dave Geary, Wauconda public works director. "But because of the price of salt now that we're paying, there is a big benefit to reducing up to maybe 20 percent of our salt usage."

Geary said the village should conserve enough salt to make up in just more than a year the $30,500 cost to equip the five remaining trucks in its fleet.

That cost also covers additional equipment to add calcium chloride to the salt brine mixture so that it doesn't freeze below 18 to 20 degrees.

Wauconda, along with many counties, townships, municipalities and other agencies that are part of the state's joint purchasing agreement for road salt, are just finding out whether their requested supplies will come through.

The village should get the green light from the state next week on obtaining 1,500 tons of salt. Wauconda originally ordered 2,500 tons of rock salt. The village will pay $140 a ton. Last year prices were about $42 a ton.

Aside from saving the village money in the long run, using less road salt benefits the environment, Mayor Salvatore Saccomanno said.

Excessive salt draining into inland lakes, streams and rivers can cause long-term ecological damage, experts say.

"Not only did we see the writing on the wall in terms of the salt cost, but we saw that the brine solution is more environmentally friendly to the community," he said.

The Wauconda village board is expected to authorize the purchase of the equipment at Tuesday's board meeting. The village's fleet should be fully equipped by the end of December.